Hope College senior forward Laura Poppema of Holland (Holland HS) has been named to the all-region team of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

As an all-region honoree, she becomes a finalist for the 2002 DIII Kodak Women's Basketball All-America team.

This season the Flying Dutch won the MIAA championship, advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Division III tournament and posted a school record 27 victories.

Poppema lettered four years and was a two-time Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) first team honoree. This season she averaged 11.6 points and 8.1 rebounds a game while shooting 54% from the floor and 76% from the free throw line.

She hauled in more than 200 rebounds in consecutive seasons and finished fourth alltime among Hope rebounders with 695 over 110 games.

Poppema played on three MIAA champion teams and during her four seasons the Flying Dutch posted a 93-18 overall record and 52-8 mark against MIAA opponents.

She is the only Michigan player named to the All-Region team. Other honorees from the Great Lakes Region are Jennifer Harrison of Otterbein, Ohio, Je'Nine Nickerson of Case Western Reserve, Rachel Poland of Heidelberg, Ohio and Katy Sturtz of Ohio Wesleyan.

Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women's basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game in all of its aspects as an amateur sport for women and girls.

Kodak has sponsored the Kodak Women's All-America basketball team for 29 years. It is Kodak's way of reocgnizing the accomplishments of young athletes and the positive recognition they bring to their school by displaying their talents on the basketball floor.